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A Million Babies and What It Cost to Save Them
Jane Chen co-founded Embrace Global as a student project at Stanford in 2007. She moved to India at 25 and spent four years working 12-to-15-hour days to bring a portable infant incubator to market. That technology — a sleeping-bag-like device that maintains 98 degrees for six hours on a 30-minute charge — has now saved over a million babies' lives in humanitarian crisis zones worldwide.
In this conversation, Jane talks about the real cost of that mission. A major distribution deal collapsed a week before signing, leaving seven days of cash in the bank. Mark Benioff responded with one line: "I will fund your company." Years later, a second deal was fully signed, but the acquiring company shut down before the wire transferred. Jane hit rock bottom — severe panic attacks, depression, unable to get through a meal.
She left everything behind and went on a healing journey that took her from Indonesia to frog poisoning ceremonies to Internal Family Systems therapy. The breakthrough: her drive to save powerless children came from feeling powerless in a violent home as a child. She shares what she learned about trauma, self-compassion, and why resilience isn't about grit — it's about being kind to yourself in the face of immense struggle.
The conversation also covers identity in the age of AI, the illusion of control, somatic awareness, and how to make decisions from love instead of fear. It closes with Jane surfing in Honolulu with Nathan — a two-pound baby abandoned in China, saved by an Embrace incubator, now 14 years old and catching waves beside her.
(00:00) Introduction
(02:30) The Book and the Fellowship
(03:54) What Writing a Memoir Revealed
(06:09) The Why Behind the Why
(09:17) Worth Beyond Achievement
(13:39) Identity in the Age of AI
(15:28) The Illusion of Control
(18:27) What We Can Actually Control
(20:37) Throwing the Book in the Ocean
(22:27) The Gift of the Process
(23:31) The Origin of Embrace Global
(26:22) Moving to India and Building the Company
(29:57) The Distribution Deal That Collapsed
(32:13) Mark Benioff and the Meditation at Davos
(34:10) The Roller Coaster of Entrepreneurship
(36:40) Burnout and the Second Collapse
(39:23) Rock Bottom and Panic Attacks
(40:56) Resilience Is Self-Compassion
(42:37) The Coincidence That Saved Embrace
(45:00) Tony Robbins and the Rebirth of Embrace
(47:52) A Million Babies and Nathan's Story
(51:00) What Healing Looks Like
(55:27) The Science of Trauma
(57:28) Internal Family Systems and Self-Compassion
(59:54) Leading from a Healed Place
(1:01:15) Decisions from Love or Fear
(1:07:17) The Wisdom in Difficult Emotions
(1:08:22) Jane's Coaching Practice and How to Connect
(1:13:44) Closing Reflections
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By Unreasonable GroupJane Chen co-founded Embrace Global as a student project at Stanford in 2007. She moved to India at 25 and spent four years working 12-to-15-hour days to bring a portable infant incubator to market. That technology — a sleeping-bag-like device that maintains 98 degrees for six hours on a 30-minute charge — has now saved over a million babies' lives in humanitarian crisis zones worldwide.
In this conversation, Jane talks about the real cost of that mission. A major distribution deal collapsed a week before signing, leaving seven days of cash in the bank. Mark Benioff responded with one line: "I will fund your company." Years later, a second deal was fully signed, but the acquiring company shut down before the wire transferred. Jane hit rock bottom — severe panic attacks, depression, unable to get through a meal.
She left everything behind and went on a healing journey that took her from Indonesia to frog poisoning ceremonies to Internal Family Systems therapy. The breakthrough: her drive to save powerless children came from feeling powerless in a violent home as a child. She shares what she learned about trauma, self-compassion, and why resilience isn't about grit — it's about being kind to yourself in the face of immense struggle.
The conversation also covers identity in the age of AI, the illusion of control, somatic awareness, and how to make decisions from love instead of fear. It closes with Jane surfing in Honolulu with Nathan — a two-pound baby abandoned in China, saved by an Embrace incubator, now 14 years old and catching waves beside her.
(00:00) Introduction
(02:30) The Book and the Fellowship
(03:54) What Writing a Memoir Revealed
(06:09) The Why Behind the Why
(09:17) Worth Beyond Achievement
(13:39) Identity in the Age of AI
(15:28) The Illusion of Control
(18:27) What We Can Actually Control
(20:37) Throwing the Book in the Ocean
(22:27) The Gift of the Process
(23:31) The Origin of Embrace Global
(26:22) Moving to India and Building the Company
(29:57) The Distribution Deal That Collapsed
(32:13) Mark Benioff and the Meditation at Davos
(34:10) The Roller Coaster of Entrepreneurship
(36:40) Burnout and the Second Collapse
(39:23) Rock Bottom and Panic Attacks
(40:56) Resilience Is Self-Compassion
(42:37) The Coincidence That Saved Embrace
(45:00) Tony Robbins and the Rebirth of Embrace
(47:52) A Million Babies and Nathan's Story
(51:00) What Healing Looks Like
(55:27) The Science of Trauma
(57:28) Internal Family Systems and Self-Compassion
(59:54) Leading from a Healed Place
(1:01:15) Decisions from Love or Fear
(1:07:17) The Wisdom in Difficult Emotions
(1:08:22) Jane's Coaching Practice and How to Connect
(1:13:44) Closing Reflections